Fashion

How Big Is The Chinese Counterfeit Market?

Fake, replicas, legit copies. Those are all synonyms for counterfeit products that, in the last 4/5 years, have literally created a fissure in the fashion industry. With many examples ranging from designer streetwear to accessories, it’s pretty clear that the situation has led to a considerable loss for some brands. Let’s analyse the subject in more detail.

How Close Are The Reps, Compared To The Real Ones?

Although this is a legitimate question that everyone is asking when it comes to this subject, the answer is, unfortunately, incredibly simple: they are pretty much the same thing. Analysing, in fact, a variety of products ranging from bags to hoodies, we can’t spot big flaws between the two, which automatically leads us to another question: “If these are basically the exact same product, why am I spending 20 times the price of the Chinese one on the real one?”. This, unfortunately, is a question that doesn’t confirm the sentence “you pay for the quality”.

Targeted Products And Data

The Chinese counterfeit market doesn’t only focus on streetwear and big brand replicas, but also on many design trends that local brands are copying for their lines of products: this ranges from shoes to luxury swimwear and designer beachwear that recently saw a considerable increase from Chinese-based factories. The fact that the automation level, combined with an overall low-cost workforce, is pretty high, leads these businesses to succeed in an incredibly short timeframe, with many factories reaching a 6 figures income in a matter of weeks.

Portals

E-Commerce is the way of selling these products and there are dedicated portals where you can buy them. Reddit is the go-to place, with many subreddits which are covering the subject, ranging from shoe replicas to watches. Of course, these products are listed on Chinese-based sites like Taobao, Dhgate and Aliexpress, naturally famous due to the fact that they also have a countless number of branding campaigns online at the moment, involving influencers, YouTubers and bloggers.

To Conclude

The counterfeit market is definitely something that scares medium level brands who are trying to establish themselves in the market. Whilst this is a considerable threat, we must also state the fact that this topic has been taken into consideration by major authorities, who are actively trying to stop these factories. The fire is ages away from being stopped, but we can definitely say that it’s been significantly reduced.